The houses in this part of town are better built than elsewhere, and that of the Descoings's was one of the finest.

It stands opposite to the house of Monsieur Hochon, and has three windows in front on the first storey, and a porte-cochere on the ground-floor which gives entrance to a courtyard, beyond which lies the garden.

Under the archway of the porte-cochere is the door of a large hall lighted by two windows on the street.

The kitchen is behind this hall, part of the space being used for a staircase which leads to the upper floor and to the attic above that.

Beyond the kitchen is a wood-shed and wash-house, a stable for two horses and a coach-house, over which are some little lofts for the storage of oats, hay, and straw, where, at that time, the doctor's servant slept.
The hall which the little peasant and her uncle admired with such wonder is decorated with wooden carvings of the time of Louis XV., painted gray, and a handsome marble chimney-piece, over which Flore beheld herself in a large mirror without any upper division and with a carved and gilded frame.